the birds will sing our song in halcyon
by i-am-audible
Summary: the boy with the mask and white hair holds out a hand, but she doesn't take it, Touka doesn't know him. ‑— Kaneki/Touka.


**disclaimer**: not mine.

**dedication**: to **B**, my one and only inspiration.

**notes**: prepare your mind to be fucked up, 'cause even I don't know where did this come from. This is semi–AU, so yeah it doesn't go like the manga, but fear not! Everything shall be explanied. And I will totally ignore the possibility of Yomo's sister being the mother of Touka and Ayato, 'cause in this fic Touka and Ayato are humans! B and I came up with it, but it's just a possibility. What is left to say except: enjoy.

**P.S. english isn't my native language, so there maybe mistakes.**

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**the birds will sing our song in halcyon**

the boy with the mask and white hair holds out a hand, but she doesn't take it, Touka doesn't know him. ‑— Kaneki/Touka.

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_i:_ the beginning

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Touka wakes up tired, even more than last night when she returned from work. She slowly gets up from the bed, feeling groggy as she stares at her reflection. Her whole body aches, her hair looks like a birds nest and the bags underneath her eyes are more visible, Touka lets out a tired sigh before moving towards the small bathroom. She finishes her morning routine by brushing her hair and putting make–up to cover the bags underneath her eyes. She looks at her reflection again, just to make sure everything is as it should be, glances at the clock and leaves for school.

Touka checks twice if she locked the door and stuffs her hand in the bag to pull out her wallet, she has bills to pay and clothes to buy so Touka skips breakfast this morning as well and continues on her way to school.

"Touka-chan!" A cheerful and somewhat loud voice calls her from her left. Touka turns, facing her friend Yoriko who is a bit out of breath from running, even her cheeks are rosy. When Yoriko stops panting for air she looks at raven haired girl. "Good morning!"

Her wide smile makes Touka smile as well. "'Morning."

Yoriko immediately starts talking about their classes for today and about the food she prepared, Touka listens to her, occasionally nodding and suddenly she realizes that the time spend in school is probably the only time when she forgets about her problems. As they enter their class room Touka takes her seat behind Yoriko, who is already taking out the needed notebooks and is preparing for class.

"Yoriko," Touka whispers from behind her. "cover me."

"Ehh Touka–chan?" Yoriko turns her head a bit to see what is she doing and nearly yells, the first period is just about to start and she is already sleeping! But with everything that's been going on she probably hasn't had time to sleep and so Yoriko does her best to cover her from the teacher's view while taking notes.

It's been nearly a month since Ayato, Touka's little brother, ran away. Yoriko remembers that day well, Ayato started shouting at Touka, and instead of trying to calm him Touka acted hot–headed and the two of end started a shouting match which ended by Ayato leaving. Touka told her that he hasn't come back ever since then, she also said she check the usual places but she couldn't find him anywhere. Yoriko understands that Ayato is only fourteen and hurt, but he shouldn't make Touka work harder than she already is. She always admired Touka, ever since she found out that she lost her parents to s ghoul. Touka who is balancing between two jobs, high school and taking care of her little brother. Yoriko wants to help her too, but Touka is prideful and doesn't want to be pitied. But still at Yoriko's request, Touka and her always eat lunch, which she makes together on fridays. She is glad that Touka is her friend.

It's been two years since the high school started and Yoriko remembers it like it was yesterday, being so nervous on the first day. She remembers putting on make–up and then removing it because it looked weird, remembers trying to make a bun, but her hair didn't cooperate with her and giving up. She remembers that the very first time she saw Touka, Yoriko thought that she looked cool and kind of scary.

Touka is a girl of average height with pale complexion and piercing blue eyes. Her black hair, which was to her neck, was let down with bangs covering the right side of her face. Yoriko immediately thought that Touka was pretty, a true natural beauty. But within two weeks Touka was called the _Ice Queen_ by their classmates. She never smiled and rarely made an expression to anything. And when Yoriko and Touka ended up as partners for a gym class, she remembers how nervous she was when she first talked to Touka and how happy she was by the end of the day. And ever since then, Yoriko and Touka became friends.

Smiling softly at her memories she writes down the last notes. The first period finishes and the second one is starting, but Touka isn't waking up and Yoriko doesn't wake her up.

**.**

Kaneki wakes up feeling hungry, like he does almost everyday. He removes the sheets covering him and walks to the bathroom to take a shower, avoiding to look himself in the mirror. The cold water wakes him up completely and the hunger now, is present even more. He chooses to wear simple black pants and a dark blue dress–shirt before moving to the kitchen to make coffee, but he ends up empty–handed, there is no coffee. Shaking his head Kankei wants to go and get his wallet and drop by the store to buy some when his phone interrupts him. It's a text from Hide, his best friend.

"_Morning Kaneki! Do you think we could meet up in twenty minutes or so, you want to hear this._" He reads the text once again and decided that Hide has some kind of interesting information, because it doesn't look like his normals texts. He types in "_In twenty minutes at the coffee shop 'Cherry'. Don't be late_." He throws his phone on the bed and is glad that he put skin–tone nail polish to cover his black nails, no matter how embarrassing that was. He looks around the room trying to locate his wig and hair clips. It's not like he dislikes his hair as it is now, it's just a fear that someone would recognize him because how many young people have white hair? He finds the wig underneath his bed and the hair clips are scattered along his book shelf.

Just as Kaneki finished putting on the wig and the white eye–patch his phone rings again.

"_So bossy and grumpy in the morning, that's not good Kaneki. What would your girlfriend think? At 'Cherry' got it! I will try not to be late._"

Kaneki could almost hear Hide's voice as if he is standing next to him. He puts the phone on the bed and reaches to take his wallet from the shelf, he checks if he has enough for both because Kaneki knows Hide will stuck the bill to him. He then goes to retrieve his phone, passing by his mother's photo which Kankei stops to look at. He misses her and he blames himself for her death if he had just used his kagune, like he should have, his mother would still be here.

Kaneki picks up his phone and leaves his apartment quickly, locks the door and starts walking to _Cherry_, a coffee shop four blocks away from his apartment. He's a bit early, but Kaneki doesn't mind, at least he will drink coffee in silence. As he is walking Kaneki passes a lot of shops, and he stops to observe his appearance in the shop's window. Hide helped him learn how to put on his wig without making it obvious that it's a wig, he then takes his hand of out the pocket and his nails look normal. Kaneki returns his gaze to the window and his face he looks almost normal. He pushes his hand back into the pocket and keeps on walking.

The coffe shop is almost empty, save him, the waitress and two more people who look like they are on a date. Kaneki approaches the counter and gives a small smile to the waitress, who is busy staring at his eye–patch to notice. "I'd like a cup of black coffee." He said and the waitress turns red, embarrassed a bit, before stuttering a quick and almost inaudible "coming right up." Kaneki gives her another small smile and goes to sit in the corner and wait for Hide.

The blonde waitress brings him coffee with a soft blush on her face and Kaneki thinks she is cute. "C–Careful, it's hot." Even her voice is small and gentle, just like her appearance, short curly blonde hair and hazel eyes. "Thank you." He doesn't know why but he smiles at her again and she turns red and nearly bumps into a chair when she walks back to the counter.

Minutes pass as Kaneki slowly enjoys his coffee and waits for Hide. He wonders what kind of information Hide has for him and can't help but wonder if it from _Anteiku_, the coffee shop his mother often visited or about doves. Kaneki heard that more doves appeared in the 20th ward and he thinks about moving to another, maybe the 6th ward. Maybe even the ward his moth—

"KA–NE–KI!" His thoughts are interrupted by a very loud voice which belongs to a certain blonde. He looks up from his cup and there is Hide, dressed in bright red pants and a yellow t–shirt with some weird gun print.

"Hide can't you be more quiet?" He asks with a smirk on his face and Hide grins at him.

"Idiot. I've been calling your name for quite some time now. Ah, excuse me," he waves at the blonde waitress, whose cheeks are still rosy. "one cappuccino please." She nods at Hide and starts making it, who turn to look at Kaneki.

"She's been staring at you, at least that's what I saw when I was coming in, you sly bastard." Hide whispers to Kaneki as she is bringing him his order. Kaneki sips at his own coffee as she is placing Hide's cup on the table and he suddenly rises his head, her hazel eyes meet his blue one, he smiles at her and the blush on her cheeks turns crimson. "E–E–Enjoy!" She stutters at Hide and almost yells and she moves away quickly from their table while holding a hand to her burning cheek.

"Not good Kaneki." Hide starts and Kaneki meets his eyes. "You shouldn't tease girls like that."

"Hide is the one to talk. Remember that waitress at _Anteiku_? You even asked for her name." Kaneki remembers that embarrassing scene and Hide simply laughs, the girl blushed and ran off without even giving him her name.

"Speaking of _Anteiku_. Kaneki do you know any ghouls by the name Fueguchi?" As Kaneki shakes his head Hide continues. "A mother and her daughter came in the coffee shop, just as I was leaving. The waiter called her 'Fueguchi–san' and 'Hinami–chan' the daughter. And I also heard that two more doves came into the 20th ward."

"I heard of that too. But why Hide? It's kind of hard to believe that they are here because of the _binge eater_ because if they were, would they have appeared months ago?"

Hide slowly drinks his cappuccino as Kaneki looks into his cup, the subject of _binge eater _was sensitive to him. "I don't think that they have to to the 20th ward because of her. I think that they are here for the mother and daughter. From what I heard a first–class ghoul investigator came in and his partner is rank 1. As for why the mother and the daughter, they have came to stay in _Anteiku_ for a while. And her husband either stayed behind or is dead. Now, what would make sense is that he was involve in something, or had something that made ghouls come to him and the doves were investigating him, they even probably killed him and now are going after neath the mother and the daughter."

"I see. And what about others? The ghouls who work in _Anteiku_ had they made any progress?"

"Not that I know of, even the _gourment_ is laying low. There is a new waitress at who Nishiki–senpai yells now, but then again she does break a lot of plates. Other than that nobody is making any movements. That big guy Yomo is still picking up suicide victims and the manager does nothing."

Kaneki takes in everything Hide is saying, and had said, and the next few hours they are just laughing and talking like they used to.

**.**

When Yoriko wakes Touka up, it's lunch time. She is half–asleep as she goes and buys the same jam bun she always does and a bottle of water. As she returns to the classroom Touka sees that Yoriko already moved their desks together and she took out her bento. She takes her seat across Yoriko and starts eating.

"What?" Touka finds it funny how Yoriko keeps glaring at the jam bun.

"Touka–chan, again?" Touka just shakes her head at the question, it was the same question everyday. Yoriko pouts at being ignored and opens up her bento, giving one rice ball to Touka who stares at it for a couple of seconds and then at Yoriko before taking it. Before she could even say "thank you", Yoriko gives her notes to Touka.

"Tch." Touka says as she flips through the notebooks. "Sorry Yoriko, but can I have these for the next class? I have to copy them, and thanks."

"No problem Touka–chan! Now eat up!"

By the end of the day Touka has copied notes she missed and had done half of her english homework. As the bell rang, signaling the end of school Touka took out the trash and Yoriko help them re–arrange the tables before they were free to go home. Yoriko talked animately about a movie she wanted to see and about their plans for sunday as they walked home, and Touka listened with a smile. At the cross–road they waved goodbye to each other and Yoriko hurried home while Touka went to her work place at the coffee shop _Cherry_.

The minute Touka arrives her co–worker, Fuwa Saki has a wide smile on her face and blush on her cheeks. Apparently she found someone she likes.

"His name is Kaneki–san, and no I couldn't ask but his friend yelled it. Touka–chan, he is so… so h–handsome." She takes a deep breath before continuing. "He came in earlier dressed in a dark blue dress–shirt which made a contrast with his skin and he was wearing a medical eye–patch on his left eye. And his smile Touka–chan! His smile! Oh God I hope I'm not asking for much, but please let him come to this shop again!"

Touka smiles at the blonde girl while taking off the uniform blazer and the red bow.

"Ahhh, I almost forgot. Touka–chan we need more coffee, the manager said to buy six jars of it, so don't change into your work uniform yet. I will bring the money, just wait for me."

Touka nods at her and puts her school bag into her locker. Just as Saki gives her money, the door open and she hurries to the counter while Touka uses the back exit to go to the store that's about two blocks away. As she enters the store and goes to the coffee section Touka remembers that she forgot to ask which brand. Cursing softly under her breath she looks at the jars, trying to remember which brand did the store use but coming empty–handed.

"I'd advise you to get _Blondy_." A modulated voice said behind her.

Touka turned around at lightning speed. Behind her stood a guy, who was taller than her with white hair and pale blue eyes. He had pale completion and was dressed in black.

"Excuse me?" She asked, her voice sounding so small.

"The coffee. If you cannot decided on which brand I suggest _Blondy_." He said and bended down to take for himself. The white haired guy put five jars of coffee into his bag and one was in his hands. When he got up, he gave Touka the jar he held in his hands. She decided to take it and her dainty fingers touched his hand.

"Thank you." She said quietly and in return she got a smile from the mysterious guy.

"No problem." He took his own bag and started walking towards the counter and Touka stood there watching at his retiring back.


End file.
